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June 20, 2009

Kyoto Schmyoto II

Randall Hoven
The US is doing better at controlling its carbon emissions than most other countries, without Kyoto mandates.  Thus reports Drew Thornley at The American (the Journal of the American Enterprise Institute). 

"According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), carbon-dioxide emissions from the combustion of fossil fuels increased 0.7 percent in the United States from 2000 to 2006, far below the worldwide increase of 21.6 percent. During the same period, emissions grew 4.9 percent in Europe, 37.6 percent in the Middle East, and 52.3 percent in Asia. Major developing nations saw big increases. India, Malaysia, and China's emissions increased 27.7 percent, 45.8 percent, and 103 percent, respectively."

So the world, or at least the American Enterprise Institute, is now catching up to the American Thinker, which in 2007 reported on this same phenomenon.

"If we look at that data and compare 2004 (latest year for which data is available) to 1997 (last year before the Kyoto treaty was signed), we find the following.

  • Emissions worldwide increased 18.0%.
  • Emissions from countries that signed the treaty increased 21.1%.
  • Emissions from non-signers increased 10.0%.
  • Emissions from the U.S. increased 6.6%."

As Drew Thornley quotes Gwyn Prins of the London School of Economics and Steve Rayner of Oxford University:  "[the Kyoto Protocol] as an instrument for achieving emissions reductions, has failed . . . It has produced no demonstrable reductions in emissions or even in anticipated emissions growth."

For those concerned about absolute levels of emissions rather than percentage increases, Thornley also reports

"In 2006, China passed the United States as the world's biggest carbon emitter, and its lead is growing daily. The EIA projects that China's energy-related emissions of carbon dioxide will exceed American emissions by almost 15 percent in 2010 and by 75 percent in 2030. In 1990, China and India together accounted for 13 percent of the world's emissions; in 2005, their contribution was 23 percent; and in 2030, they are expected to account for 34 percent of the world's emissions."

Kyoto has failed.  Who could have guessed?

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